Social | Page 112 of 182

CollegeHumor ‘Likes’ Giant Stuffed Banana

May 8, 2013, 12:00AM

By Elena Zanone

Last week Internet comedy site CollegeHumor.com launched a Facebook campaign to recoup Henry Gribbohm, the man who lost 2,600 dollars in his life savings at a carnival game only to score a stuffed banana, for the full 2,600 bucks. In classic CollegeHumor style, the site said it would only buy back Gribbohm if he sold them the giant fruit – with dreadlocks and all.

The 30-year-old New Hampshire resident quickly rose to interweb fame with his tale of misfortune. He had been aiming to win an Xbox Kinect, valued at about 100 dollars, but instead quickly lost 300 dollars and went home to get the remainder 2,300 dollars more, which was also tragically lost at the same carnival game. Photos of a defeated Gribbohm, wearing a sleeveless T-shirt and sadly clutching his consolation prize rocketed around the Internet at viral speed, leaving with it a trail of tweets and Facebook Shares in its wake.

Catching wind of the news, CollegeHumor editor-in-chief Streeter Seidell rallied fans of the site on Facebook because he “felt bad” for Gribbohm.

“We here at CollegeHumor were so touched by this story — and also, we really want that giant banana with dreadlocks — that we’ve decided to launch a campaign to buy back Henry’s banana for the exact cost of the life savings he lost,” read the statement on the site. “So everybody do their part and LIKE THIS POST! Henry gets his money back, we get to look like good Samaritans when really we just want a giant stuffed banana with dreads sitting in our office, commenters can be like ‘How Stoopid waz this guy SMH,’ etc., so everybody wins!”

The outlandish campaign was straight forward. For every Facebook Like that this post on the site acquired, College Humor would put ten cents towards purchasing the massive stuffed banana. If the post reached 26,000 Likes, CollegeHumor would pay Gribbohm back in full. If it got 30,000 Likes, the site would buy the stuffed dread-lock-sporting fruit and pay for the Xbox Kinect that Gribbohm was originally trying to win for his kids.

Needless to say, the weird and wacky campaign was a huge success all around. On Monday CollegeHumor posted, “Success! We now have a giant Rasta Banana in our office forever€ and with the post eclipsing the 30,000 Like benchmark, Gribbohm has his life savings back and the Xbox Kinect is at home with the kids.

You can watch “the dramatic conclusion to the ‘Save Banana Man’ saga” here.

BONUS: The site also stated that if this post gets 20,000 Likes CollegeHumor claims that their interns will eat the stuffed banana. The Facebook post is currently at 2,679 Likes at the time of this writing.

Source: Mashable

Warren Buffet Acquires 1,000 Twitter Followers Per Minute

BY AList Staff

May 7, 2013, 12:00AM

By Elena Zanone

Last week the Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffet joined Twitter, scooping up more than 45,000 followers in less than 45 minutes of being on the platform.

“Warren is in the house.” Buffet tweeted.

The 82-year-old “Oracle of Omaha” sent out that debut tweet from account @warrenbuffett during a live webcast interview with Fortune’s Pattie Sellers on the changing landscape for women in business. The event was marked as the first social media event for the notoriously technology-averse billionaire.

It was only a matter of time before the business mogul rightly took ownership of his slab of the platform. There are already dozens of fake Warren Buffett accounts on Twitter, some of which have pretty sizable followings too. @W_Buffett has more than 100,000 followers and @BuffettInvestorhas nearly 35,000 followers.

If gaining 1,000 followers per minute wasn’t enough indication of his future success on the social network, his classic quips secure him as a shoe-in for success too.

Aside from his long term notoriety and influence in the industry, he also has had some great, concise quotes over his career – perfect for the 140-character loving platform. There’s the classic that would have been great as a tweet: “Rule No.1: Never lose money. Rule No.2: Never forget rule No.1,” or the humorous, “I buy expensive suits. They just look cheap on me.” Then there’s the profound, “Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing,” as well as, “In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.”

The investing guru now stands in good mogul company. Other recent Twitter converts include News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch (@RupertMurdoch) and former U.S. President Bill Clinton (@BillClinton).

What do you want to see Warren Buffet tweet – tips, insider news, behind-the-scenes updates Let us know in the comments below!

Source: Reuters

Instagram’s Big Deal For Marketers

BY Lauren Arevalo-Downes

May 3, 2013, 12:00AM

By Elena Zanone

Instagram has rolled out a new way for users and marketers to tag people and objects in their own photos and file them in a new tab called “Photos of You.” The introduction of photo-tagging on the social platform could be a game changer for not just users but also brand. It seems to be part of parent company Facebook’s move to accelerate growth and make it more appetizing for brands to take up real estate on the platform.

“‘Photos of You’ offers a new way to share and discover stories on Instagram, as well as provides users with a great way to share and discover content that showcases the brands and products they love.” Instagram announced in their blog yesterday.

Instagram’s new feature is similar to Facebook’s own photo tagging system, where users can add a person’s name, and the image will then appear on their own profile and News Feed depending on privacy settings. Previously, users could @mention others in photo captions but there was no way to indicate who was who in a photo.

The biggest improvement is that now users will be able to tag objects, which is perfect for brands. It’s a feature that Facebook doesn’t even offer, so Instagram’s brand amplification meter just got a little more juice. The change could be a goldmine for marketers who are constantly striving to create ways to reach the platform’s 100 million users and drive more engagement.

Before “Photos of You,” brands could only curate the Instagram stream to show off the best products they sell. Users could then follow the brand’s account to see what they had to offer, and that was the end of it. (Womp. Womp.) It wasn’t much of a pull for advertisers who currently dedicate their social dollars and time to more advertising-friendly sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Now, brands have an interesting opportunity to get creative for future campaigns and other marketing initiatives on Facebook’s photo sharing darling.

Mike Isaac at AllThingsD shared insight to on what major brands could do: “‘Photos of You’ essentially gives a brand the ability to crowdsource photos of its products — likely put to use — from the millions of people who are on Instagram and taking pictures all the time. So, basically, if I’m Nike, I could potentially get tons of free content for my Photos of You tab, all courtesy of the rest of Instagram.”

Incidentally, there are currently millions of photos tagged with hashtag #Nike on Instagram that the company can use.

Another possibility — this could answer the problem of users who’ve risen against advertising on the platform. One remedy may be that brands can now ask users to share their tagged photos on Facebook, essentially getting permission to incorporate their Instagram content into a platform where they might already be running campaigns. It’s one way to get branded content out through users who might otherwise have disdain for straight-up ads in their feed. It’s also likely to drive deeper engagement by that users’ friends than traditional sponsored content.

“Photos of You” is available in Instagram’s iOS and Android versions of the app, but no talk yet of incorporating the feature into the web version. Facebook says all users will have until May 16th to test the feature before their “Photos of You” section is visible to others.

What creative ways do you foresee brands using Instagram’s “Photos of You” feature

Source: Instagram

For Secretary Day, LinkedIn Gives You One

BY Lauren Arevalo-Downes

May 1, 2013, 12:00AM

By Elena Zanone

Just in time for last week’s commemoration of Administrative Professionals Day — a.k.a. Secretary Day — LinkedIn rolled out a new service called Contacts that acts as a virtual secretary. The app, currently in limited testing, lets users sync data from other productivity tools they’re using and sets reminders for meetings, calls and past correspondence with contacts.

Contacts comes from a company called Connected that LinkedIn acquired in October 2011. It seems to move the professional social net even closer to its mission to become more than just a rolodex.

“When you think about LinkedIn.com today, many people already consider it their professional rolodex, but today it truly only represents the explicit connections that you’ve created on LinkedIn.com. The reality is our professional lives span more than LinkedIn.com, and our contacts are kind of spread everywhere,” explained Sarchin Rekhi, Linked In’s product lead for Contacts.

Contacts aggregates information such as email addresses, phone numbers and calendar notices neatly into one place that is accessible both on LinkedIn’s free iPhone app and on the web. Users can pull data from networking tools they’re already using and sync it to their profiles, including Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Microsoft Outlook, TripIt, and Evernote. There is no talk yet of integrating Facebook and Twitter.

Contacts also culls details such as past conversations and meetings so users can see past correspondence with their contacts at a glance. One nifty feature is how users can set up reminders within the tool for when to contact people in their network.

Linked In put it this way: “Get alerted on job changes and birthdays in your network, a perfect opportunity to stay in touch. Also, you can set reminders and add notes about the important people in your life.”

Users will also be able to see the people they’ve most recently spoken to, or those they’ve “lost touch” with. The service seems to index everything using an algorithm to make sure that only real connections, not spammers, show up in contacts lists.

Contacts is currently an invite-only service available exclusively in the United States. Users can join the waiting list here.

Source LinkedIn

The White House Gets Ready To ‘Tumble’

BY Lauren Arevalo-Downes

April 30, 2013, 12:00AM

By Elena Zanone

The Obama White House has proven itself to be a social media maven. Last week, the White House made the first post to its official Tumblr. The administration says it will post notes on policy decisions, peel back the curtain on some governmental action, publish quotes from the President himself, and upload animated GIFs.

“We see some great things here at the White House every day, and sharing that stuff with you is one of the best parts of our jobs,” the White House stated in its first post. “That’s why we’re launching a Tumblr.”

It’s a surprisingly late entrance for an administration that has already launched a Vine, the newest social media player to hit the interwebs. The White House has been an active member on Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Pinterest, YouTube, and Google+. Apparently there’s no shortage of material for adding Tumblr.

The administration continued in their debut Tumblr post, “We’ll post things like the best quotes from President Obama, or video of young scientists visiting the White House for the science fair, or photos of adorable moments with Bo. We’ve got some wonky charts, too. Because to us, those are actually kind of exciting.”

Obama’s reliance on social media dates back to his first campaign. The President used social media heavily in his 2008 run. After his election in 2012, many pointed to his campaign’s expert use of social media to communicate with voters and even raise money compared to shortcomings in his opponent, Mitt Romney’s camp. Obama even had a Tumblr during the campaign – remember barackobama.tumblr.com Now that he’s in his second term he’s continuing to position his administration as the most accessible in history.

In proper social media protocol, the White House’s Tumblr will also serve as a place where the public is encouraged to ask questions and share personal stories about what governmental policies mean to them. The administration even wants users to offer suggestions about how the White House can improve its “Tumbling.”

Users can follow the White House’s new Tumblr at whitehouse.tumblr.com.

What would you like to see on the White House Tumblr? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Source: Mashable

Call of Duty: Ghosts Social Teaser

BY Lauren Arevalo-Downes

April 30, 2013, 12:00AM

A teaser engagement for Call of Duty: Ghosts has appeared on the franchise’s official site. An image is slowly being built on a new teaser page, populated based on Tweets using the #CallofDuty hashtag. The image appears to be taking the shape of the mask of Simon “Ghost” Riley, the British soldier last seen in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Fans can click to post to Facebook or Twitter in order to be featured in the mosaic.

Easter Eggs In Facebook Photos

BY Lauren Arevalo-Downes

April 26, 2013, 12:00AM

By Elena Zanone

Marketers just scored a powerful new way to engage their Facebook audiences through interactive images. The free interactive tech is courtesy of ThingLink, which integrated with Twitter earlier this year.

ThingLink’s platform allows publishers to embed content such as music, video, sound, site links and text inside Facebook images. The aesthetic and functionality is similar to YouTube video annotations.

When users hover over an image they can experience a menu of content. It’s an appealing draw for brands and advertisers on Facebook, where they can add loads of content that can be consumed without ever having to leave Facebook Timeline. It can certainly help a brand cram a lot of information into a single impression.

“Images are becoming forums for conversation and discovery that include sharing, touching, commenting, and remixing rich media content created by others,” said ThingLink CEO Ulla Engeström. “ThingLink is now enabling a new kind of discovery experience on Facebook Timeline that evokes emotion and brings moments to life in ways that drive higher engagement.”

According to Twitter representatives, measurement of branded content on the network last November showed ThingLink drove five times more engagement for brands that used it. It will be interesting to see how it plays out on Facebook, currently the most rich media friendly social network.

Los Angeles Times, Hyundai and Ikea and are among brands taking advantage of the new tech. Los Angeles Times’ creative approach has been to upload a virtual photo of their hardcopy newspaper packed with links to top stories on their website.

ThingLink isn’t the first interactive-image service to hit Facebook. Stipple did so in January.

“ThingLink allows content producers to better understand how their images are being used by consumers on the different social media platforms, both in terms of interactions with the image as well as a wide range of social behaviors.” said ThingLink in their blog.

The technology is available for users now. What are creative ways you can see brands or even users taking advantage of ThingLink powered photos?

Source ThingLink

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5. Old Spice: Old Spice | Watermelon

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